Lesson Plans

Welcome

Good writing is hard work! Charles Shulz aptly used Snoopy to demonstrate the difficulties of writing fluently in his comic-strip Peanuts on a regular basis.

Writing instructors, often themselves fluent writers, tend to forget the beleaguered feeling beginning writers struggle with when learning to write. As an aspiring writing instructor, I hope to remember Snoopy's endless writer's block and provide an encouraging atmosphere for my students in which they can pursue their writing endeavors.

This website grew out of my English 563 graduate project, as I began thinking of ways to demonstrate methods that encourage writing in middle school to an audience of students, teachers, parents, and administrators.

For instance, most middle school students never get the opportunity to write a lengthy piece of fiction due to time constraints in the curriculum. However, Nancy Atwell, an expert in writing instruction, sets aside six to eight weeks for a fiction writing unit at her school, Center for Teaching and Learning.

On this website, you will find the first three weeks of a six week unit modeled after Atwell's writing advice. In this model unit, the lesson plans end before the students make their first trip to the computer lab to begin typing their first drafts.

I have attempted to make the lesson plans applicable even to students and schools with limited access to technology. In the instances where I reference YouTube videos, I make a point in the lesson plans to mention how these videos can be burned to DVD to display in the classroom. The technology to accomplish this is free, widely available, and easy to use.

To navigate through this site, simply click on the link that says "lesson plans" on the top left-hand side of this page, remember to click on the arrow to see a list of all the lesson plans. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Saif Raza

Inspiration from Snoopy